SM Swap Goodies :D

I am currently working on my models for the Halloween Stablemate Swap over on Blab. My original idea was to turn the G2 (?) Andalusian into a baroque horse with a braided mane and tail--something like this:

Pretty, huh? Unfortunately, my local tack shop didn't have any of that mold in stock (I still plan to do that one day, though!).

I ended up buying the Saddle Club set with four sms. I'm keeping the stock horse OF, because his shading is to die for and he has nice clean masking. The black standing QH mare turned into a failed etchie. It was a good learning experiences, but she'll definitely be getting a coat of paint! The chestnut running tb was primed, but I am having difficulty with my primer. I believe it's called Krylon H2O. It comes out in globs and likes to pool in the grooves of the horse (how will I ever fix that?). I have much more luck with my grey sandable primer. I have heard that some artists prime first with grey sandable primer and then gradually build up a white base coat using regular white Krylon spray. Has anyone else tried this? My latest paint job turned out really grainy and I know it's partly because of my poor priming skills.

Anyway, I took some in-progress pics of my swap sm. She started out as the standing Thoroughbred. She had the most pathetic paint job, and ridiculously uneven ears. I took the liberty of writing on her in pencil:

Next, I performed some surgery:

Gave her some bones:

And sculpted a new neck, mane, tail, and ears, as well as lengthening her head.

After a few coats of pastels:

And a few more, plus the beginnings of some white markings:

The sad thing is, she looks better in the pictures than she does in real life. I hope that the finished product will be something my swap partner will like!

And something I just had to share...

...if you are RivnRo, stop reading or it will ruin the surprise!









...So you're not RivnRo? Sweet. Anywho, I decided to sculpt a medallion for my wonderful swap partner, inspired by this picture:

What a cute face! After 2 hours and a lot of squinting, I sculpted this:

It's pretty rough, and I have no idea if the eye area actually worked out, but I'm rather proud of myself :) I think I'll try sculpting some more medallions in the future (but not as small as this one!). I have some Sculpey lying around that would do the job quite nicely.

Still waiting for my copy of the Guide to Model Horse Tack Making by Susan Bensema Young to arrive in the mail. The suspense is so hard to take! The reviews on this book are fantastic, so I'm very excited!